I want to sell my old laptop but I want to replace the hard drive first. It's an Acer 5742z.

I have never done this before and I'm scared of getting it wrong and destroying something lol so any sensible advice would be much appreciated!

Do you want to remove the hard disk because you are concerned about your data being left on it? If so there are lots of free programs that can erase it for you. Eraser, for example http://eraser.heidi.ie

If you are paranoid about it then a lump hammer is your friend when it comes to securely deleting your data permanently, but before you do go all smashy smashy give it a month or 2 just incase you remember you need something you've not transferred off the old drive or if you're feeling slightly less hammer friendly just get a USB caddy and use it as an external drive to back up your stuff to

Just format it before you remove it, thats more than enough unless you have state secrets on it haha

Just take the screws out of it, and you will see it in its little chassis and two plugs. Take out the screws holding it in the bracket its in, remove the cables, and to put the new one in just do that in reverse, connect the cables and place back into bracket and put the screws in. Put the case back together and jobs a good un. Takes about 5-10 mins tops, and as long as you dont use a hammer its pretty safe to be manhandled.

Just make sure you buy the correct replacement HDD, 2.5 and not the 3.5 ones as they are for desktops etc and not little laptops.

(if you are REALLy worried about your data, then run a wiper program on a 35 pass, will take forever to do, but contrary to what CSI likes to pretend, no one is getting the data ever again (including you, so be sure haha))

Just format it before you remove it, thats more than enough unless you have state secrets on it haha

Just take the screws out of it, and you will see it in its little chassis and two plugs. Take out the screws holding it in the bracket its in, remove the cables, and to put the new one in just do that in reverse, connect the cables and place back into bracket and put the screws in. Put the case back together and jobs a good un. Takes about 5-10 mins tops, and as long as you dont use a hammer its pretty safe to be manhandled.

Just make sure you buy the correct replacement HDD, 2.5 and not the 3.5 ones as they are for desktops etc and not little laptops.

(if you are REALLy worried about your data, then run a wiper program on a 35 pass, will take forever to do, but contrary to what CSI likes to pretend, no one is getting the data ever again (including you, so be sure haha))

Haha, thanks very much Tal'shir! I'm not hugely concerned about the data but obviously I want to cover myself before I sell the laptop. And as I said, it's what of those things I'd just like to know how to do.

What kind hard drive would I need for an Acer Aspire 5743Z, do you know? Would any 2.5 do or does it have to be a specific make or model?

Why are you wasting your money on a new hard drive if the one thats in it is working ? You will get more for it if you sell it with an operating system installed.

Well even if I kept the hard drive and just erased it, I'd still need to buy another OS, so either way I have to spend money. Besides, I could keep one of them as a back up in case the next one conks out for some reason!

Why buy another OS?, if theres a COA sticker somewhere then just install that version, its the license to run the product that you pay for not the method of installing it (or most IT peeps would be in jail for having copies of various install media)

Why buy another OS?, if theres a COA sticker somewhere then just install that version, its the license to run the product that you pay for not the method of installing it (or most IT peeps would be in jail for having copies of various install media)